Shattered
by Wolf L. Storm
Summary: His body was a shell, a slave for his master, he had always been a slave...  But then why was this boy in a straw-hat here, and why was he calling him Chopper?  He was promising to keep him safe? But, Master wouldn't let the pain stop. Dark-Fic. Rated T


**Hello, since I am SICK of writing the old story of this… for the second time… which I kind of fucked up again in my opinion… Just to clarify, this is not plagiarism of Stormsoul22's "Shattered" For, I AM STORMSOUL22 MUHAHAHAHA… yeah… This story in a nutshell is what has been haunting me for ages, so if you clicked on it, you should likely feel the great shame I do when I write it… but we are both still here, so yeah. So I'd thought since I tried it so many times on my regular account, I'd give Wolf's account a full story for once. This is just a What-if Chopper got captured after the two-year time skip, right before he met the others.**

**Enjoy, Favorite, Review :P  
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**Disclaimer(s): The following is a fan made ****work**** of fiction. One Piece is owned by Funimation, Toei Animation, Fuji TV, Shueisha, Shonnan Jump Manga, and Eiichiro Oda. I do not own One Piece or any of its characters; this Fanfiction is for entertainment purposes only.**

"**It hurts… but I'm not allowed to feel pain just yet."**

**Chapter 1  
>Just A Dream<br>Written by Wolf L. Storm**

_Laughter… a boy in a straw hat was running around like an idiot, two chopsticks shoved up his nose, the thing sat as the warm feeling he thought was gone forever returned._

_He snuggled close to the straw hatted boy, begging for the suffering he endured to have finally ended, and be replaced with only the feeling of love in his heart._

_Smiling, it was the first time he had smiled in what seemed like forever…_

_He hurt, he couldn't even move, but the fact that a nakama gently rubbed his belly as they sat around the campfire, celebrating their recent victory from the attackers, made him feel it was all worth it._

_People still hated him, threw rocks at him, spit on him, and beat him up if he looked at them wrong, but his nakama were there to hold him, even if only in private after they took the revenge he was too scared to deal out…_

_He had to be a man… he wanted to belong with these people… but he still wanted to feel the love he had been craving for his entire life, he wanted the freedom to be happy… he felt so confused… why did they treat him so nicely?_

"_Chopper, let's play tag!" The boy with the straw hat called, that same goofy expression on his face._

_The reindeer couldn't stop the smile from splitting, he ran forward without a second thought. He was having the best time in his entire life on this boat…_

_He never wanted to leave these people… they were his family…_

Something bit him, likely a rat, and the animal jumped, only to feel dull pain as he slowly came into reality.

The animal slowly cracked his eye open until only a sliver of the bloodshot eye was visible. He glanced around at the room. The rusty and rotting walls filled his nose, making him squeeze his eye back shut and cease his breathing all at once, as if to force out the horrible stench that he was never able to grow used to. The boy swallowed hard, tasting the flavor of steel as it slivered down his throat. He cracked his eye open and finally gasped for air. His eyes stung as his vision became blurry and the tears leaked out and began forming a small pool where his head rested. His good eye began losing focus.

It was only a dream; it was always a dream…

He tried to move his body, but the moment he did, it felt almost as if every muscle in his body had exploded. He bit back a sob and began whimpering; only causing the tears to come faster. His eyes glimmered in the dim light that covered the room. He swallowed hard once more, tasting his own blood. He squeezed his eyes as tight as possible and bit on his lip until more blood arose and drained down his chin, mixing in with the puddle of tears.

The topic in his mind changed atomically, to avoid the thought of pain. He wondered if he would be fed today, his body needed food if he wanted to be a good servant anymore… his ribs were showing, and dark circles were under his eyes from his lack of sleep. The thought of food made his mouth water. However he pushed the thought away, knowing he was hoping for mere crumbs. He had once gotten a glance at what his master ate, it made him want to turn on the man, but the fear overloaded his mind.

Once the pain subsided, the little animal slowly cracked open his eyes. His head felt heavy, almost as if it was filled with a million tons of iron and steel. However, he knew the reason it was so heavy, it was the fact that his neck wore that horrible collar, the one that his master always threatened to pull the chain off so he would explode when he was bad…

The child began whimpering, the fear of the collar exploding was always in the back of his mind. His whimpering was slowly turning into crying. He clamped both hooves over his mouth and cried breathless sobs into the hooves. Master would yell at him if he began to cry again…

It took several minutes, but the boy finally managed to sit up, pain still soaring through every vein in his body. He was breathing as hard as possible, his ribcage hurt, his legs hurt, his arms hurt, everything hurt. He however still managed to curl up into a tight ball, which he did whenever he became scared, or wanted the pain to stop.

The boy tried to think back to the dream, back to the feelings he had felt so much in that place, the joy, the warmth, the… he couldn't remember the word… it wasn't in his life anymore, so why did it matter?

His back brushed against the wall and he shuddered, bare skin instead of fur revealing the burnt flesh that held a symbol of a paw print of a dragon. It was still bright red, just like everybody else's. He was less than human… however… wasn't he a reindeer? He didn't remember…

He glanced over to the small candle in the corner of the room, he began to whimper as it flickered, he could see it was already down to the end, and was going to go off any moment.

"N-N-Not the dark…" The boy whimpered, his voice was hoarse, almost as if he had screamed all of his words out of him, or if he wasn't used to talking for quite some time… maybe never. His eyes began watering up. This room had no windows, no light from the outside room, if that even existed anymore, no way out of the capes of darkness that he was so scared of.

The candle began to flicker, and the boy's eyes spilled more tears than he had in quite some time, he whimpered, and began to cry, stifling his horrible sounds by burying his face into his fuzzy knees. His naked flesh rubbing against the ground as his aching body begged for his body to stop trembling so badly in sobs, for it was shortening his breath.

The light began to flicker faster, and the boy let out a large sob, desperately grabbing at that last shred of the dream that lingered in his mind. He needed it, he needed that warmth that he knew wasn't true, it was all simply a dream, it never happened, he had been here his entire life… at least since he left his herd…

He imagined a hand was rubbing his tummy, and it was plumper, and he didn't have anything to fear when he awoke, it had all been a dream, a really bad dream. But that was stupid and wishful thinking, for he was a slave… and he never had friends…

"S-Sure," He whimpered, tears flooding down his face as the last of his precious light dared to fade out. He forced a small, sad smile onto his face as he began to sob out the words, "I-I-I'll go play tag w-with you guys."

And the light went out, wrapping him in the cold, and hateful darkness.

The animal awoke to something digging deep into his gut, his eyes shot open and he found himself coughing up blood and trembling on the ground. Within moments his lips were desperately kissing a pair of boots, he didn't know why, but he was scared to do anything out of routine. All he knew was that he brought back his light, that was enough to make the little deer grateful.

Blood filled his mouth as the same boot kicked him square in the jaw. He whimpered and began trembling, wanting to go back to his dream, wanted the arms that never existed in the first place hold him close…

A hand reached down and clenched the once fluffy tuffs of fur covering his head, forcing him to stand even though his body begged for him to stay down. He breathed heavily in and out as his now black eye made it almost impossible to see anything. At least it was his bad eye that was hurt…

"How's my pet been?" his master asked, pulling him up just high enough to stand on the very tips of his hooves for some support from the pain of having his fur pulled.

"Dark…" The boy whimpered "Please… don't put me back in the dark room…"

The hand tightened and he was pulled closer to his master "What was that?" The smell of food on the man's breath made the boy's knees buckle and his mouth water, but he looked down "Please… Master…" He begged "N-Not t-the dark room… p-please…"

"Good boy…" His master whimpered, rubbing his belly in circles. The boy shuddered at the touch, and his eyes watered up. He wanted the love in his dreams, the way Master touched him when trying to be affectionate was so unloving and cold that the boy thought it was like having ice clamp his belly.

The smell of food, or at least edible substance, hit his nose as a bowl was set in front of him. His face was shoved into it, but he ate it as fast as he could, not caring that he wanted to vomit after only one bite, either because of the horrid taste, or the fact that his stomach hadn't been supported by food in so long. Still, he ate as much as he could. That was of course until his head was lifted once more by force, his face dripping in food, the smell filling his nose along with blood made him gag. He still struggled, trying to get more of the mush Master told him was food. However his master wouldn't let him eat any more, even though his belly begged for food still.

"Master… I need… f-food…" The boy whined, tears welling up in his eyes as his chin began to wobble.

His master clenched his broken arm in his fist and twisted it, the reindeer let out a cry of pain and found he couldn't breathe, the pain was far too much for him to handle. Tears welled up, and threatened to spill out.

"What was that, my pet?" Master asked, his other hand patting rather roughly on the boy's broken ribs "Are you trying to defy me?"

"N-No…" The boy whimpered out, tears spilling out and going down his cheeks "Y-You're the Master, I'm the slave, I'm s-sorry, I'm s-sorry, I-I-I'm sorry!" He wailed, trying his best not to sob "I-I'll do whatever you say, j-just please s-s-stop!"

His arm was released, however not before twisting it until the reindeer sobbed. He fell to his knees and rubbed his arm, begging for forgiveness again and again.

The chain on his collar was tugged and the reindeer looked up "I-It doesn't hurt…" He whimpered, forcing himself to stand up and release his arm. Not a single word was true, his entire body hurt, everything about him was hurting so badly he wanted to die just for it to end, but if he let in to the pain.

"That's right, you useless shit of a pet," His master said, tugging the collar harder, threatening to yank it off "It doesn't hurt at all."

The little boy began to walk. The fear was controlling him, but his mind went back to the dream, the dream that he wanted to be true, not just another lie.

As he was dragged through the town, he saw his master had put back on the giant bubble on his head. He didn't wear it when he was disciplining the reindeer, simply because it became an annoyance, but he yelled and hit him because he was forced to breathe the air of a lowly pet.

The boy didn't glance to either side, he didn't want people stepping away and fearing him, it hurt that they had such happy lives as he walked, naked and dirty with blood and grime. Two stumps were on his head where something… he couldn't remember what, used to be. There was also the fact that one of his ears was half missing, just a floppy piece was there, that still stood up whenever he tried listening. His eyes looked dead, he couldn't tell if the people watching him felt sorry, or simply were praying nobody they cared about were ever forced into a life like he was. He was a slave, his master was the Master, he was lower than dirt, his master was higher than god. He was taught this from… he couldn't remember how long he was here…

They walked, even though his body screamed for him to curl up and die. _But death is scary_ he thought _What if it's even worse than this?_

The boy walked on for hours, or maybe it was minutes, he still had no idea. But it seemed like forever with the way his broken leg tortured him as he walked.

"Honestly, I don't see why you just don't get your slave's to carry you, you're always late!" A high class voice called. The reindeer looked up, realizing he was here. This place is where Celestial Dragons gathered, they all lived apart, but once in a while, the reindeer found himself surrounded by several people dressed like his master.

The people dressed like space explorers sniggered at him as he fought back the tears from the pain. His master walked forward and sat in what looked like a throne, the little deer sitting on the cold, hard floor.

"Honestly, who do you bring that… thing, he's always so useless, and scrawny."

"He eats like a pig whenever he gets the chance." His master grumbled "Now shall we continue?"

The little deer let his ears drift out and he glanced at the other slaves. They met his eyes, but then looked away, some looking scared, others simply defeated and waiting for death, the newer ones were trying not to cry, and the deer himself was about to join the newer ones. Even if he looked different, the other slaves saw he was only a child, but were too afraid to stand up for him. He didn't blame them, humans were scary…

A bowl of water was placed next to him, and the reindeer was on his knees within a moment's notice, lapping it up as fast as he could. Master didn't take it away… he must have been in a good mood…

"What, you have already went through all of your slaves?" A woman asked his master "Honestly Ryuu, we need to do something about your habits, all you have left is this… animal…"

"He sure as hell has a spirit," His master said "He is scared to death of me, he'll do whatever I say if I threaten to put him in the dark!" Everybody laughed, but the reindeer curled up in a little ball and let the tears run as he refused to breath, afraid he would give away his crying.

The child thought back to the dream, the warmth it gave him in his chest. It was always the same dream, having fun for the first time in years, receiving such comfort during nightmares, and then playing, it was flashes, never in any order, but he slept every night for those dreams, praying he would stay in them forever.

"So, a group of pirates has landed at the Sabaody Archipelago," A man said "Fresh slaves!"

Everybody at the table laughed, and the little deer prayed they wouldn't become just like him. He had this feeling, he didn't want people to be like him, he just wanted somebody to treat him like he was higher than Master's pet… but then again, only the people in his dreams loved him…

"What pirates are they?" his master asked.

"I don't know," A man grumbled "The captain, scrawny thing, seems furious, he's demanding to be brought to something called Chopper…"

The reindeer paused, his eye twinkled as if remembering something for a brief moment before he was yanked up as his master stood up "What did he look like?" Something was in his voice… fear? No, that was impossible, Master wasn't scared of anything!

"Some kid with a giant scar on his chest with a straw-hat, why?" The woman from before asked.

Breathing, his master was breathing rather heavily. The reindeer felt yanking on his collar, which he began to follow, afraid by the strength the chain might break. The little deer whimpered and followed as fast as he could, leaving the shocked faces of the Celestial Dragons behind him.

His master was charging, almost as if he was afraid. The reindeer's leg hurt so badly tears went down his cheeks, but he kept moving, the chain pulling him along. He whimpered and almost sobbed.

Another decade passed before they finally got back to the same place. The reindeer was so out of breath and in pain, he wanted to collapse and curl up so he could die in peace. Life hurt too much, why couldn't he feel the way he did in his dreams?

He felt his body be dragged against the wall as his master breathed heavily "Shit…" He mumbled "Shit, shit, shit!" He yelled, kicking his boot into the animal's chest, knocking the wind out of him. He curled up in pain as he coughed and gasped for air.

"Master… I'm sorry…" He whimpered, tears flooding once more.

His master looked down with hate in his eyes, he grabbed the boys chain and tied it to something on the wall so he was standing on the tips of his hooves. The reindeer's lifeless eyes glanced up, still struggling to breathe. His master chuckled evilly, almost like he was going insane.

The reindeer was silent as the tears flooded, he heard a cracking sound along with pain exploding in his chest moments later. He wailed out in pain and squeezed his eyes, thinking of the dream "I'm sorry I made you angry Master…" He whimpered, trembling so badly, his chain might break on its own.

His master brought up the whip again, and again, and again, until the boy lost count and began to simply sob incoherent words of apology as he felt the pain levels skyrocket, and his chest became covered in red.

When it finally stopped, the little boy could hear what sounded like an explosion outside. His master froze, but he looked calm now, after taking out his anger on the little boy who was his slave. The slave however, was still crying "Master… I'm sorry…" He whimpered out, letting out those horrible choking sounds.

His master walked forward, and stabbed something through one of the boy's arms and heard him cry out in agony. He then simply walked away and sat down, grabbing what looked to be a gun and pointed it towards the door.

The reindeer heard another explosion, but his vision was blurry, both from tears and blood loss. He wanted to pass out, but his mater had whipped him enough so he wouldn't pass out for a few more minutes.

He swallowed hard, tasting steel once more.

Why… why was he hurting so much?

"Chopper!" He heard yelled, it sounded like it was right outside the door. And within moments, a man in a red, open shirt with a giant scar on his chest and a straw hat walked it… the boy from his dreams… but he looked slight different, somewhat older…

The little deer heard the gun fire, but it bounced off the boy's body and hit Master's leg, he could hear agony in his masters voice. The little deer squeezed his good eye shut and let out sobs from the pain and agony, was he going to die now?

He could hear the swing of steel and he felt his body drop, however he was caught in rubbery arms. He was silent for several moments before sobbing out and kicking away, slamming his body into the wall. No, if he touched him, it only meant pain! He didn't want to hurt anymore…

He yanked the knife out of his arm and began to cry, sobbing incoherently. His blurry vision saw a man with marimo green hair and one eye shelve a sword. He couldn't see anything, he was crying too badly.

"Luffy," A gruff sounding voice grumbled "He's wearing one of those collars…"

"I know…" the boy named Luffy mumbled, seeming to try and hide the burning anger in his voice "Just… go get the key Zoro…"

Chopper kept the knife out, crying and whimpering so badly that he couldn't catch his breath. Why was the boy from his dreams here? As the boy in the straw hat squatted down and tried to move forward, the reindeer's eyes flashed to master moving the same way when he was about to be punished. He cried out and stabbed the man in the chest. Things were silent for a few moments before several hands grabbed his arms and legs and pulled them back, he cried out in pain from the broken body parts being twisted.

"Robin, let him go!" Luffy shouted behind him, anger not even hiding in his voice.

Nothing happened, and the boy's tears came faster.

"Robin!"

The hands released him and the boy fell, curling up in fear on the ground in a crumpled mess of fur and blood. He was afraid, so afraid he kept whimpering out the phrase his master forced him to say whenever he was bad. "You're the Master, I'm the slave, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…!" He begged for the pain to stop.

The reindeer heard a gasp of pain from his master. He couldn't see the man, only a pool of blood and the man with green hair standing above him, a bloody sword in hand. He leaned down, and then heard his master beg for the pain to end. He could also hear the man named Zoro snarl out "Did you listen to Chopper?"

When there was no response, Zoro growled and stabbed the sword down, and the gasping ended. He stood up, and tossed something to Luffy "Found the key…" He grumbled out, kicking the body that was hidden to the reindeer.

Luffy grabbed the key, just as the reindeer felt the knife slide over to him "Chopper, if you want to stab me, you can, if it will make up for… us being so late… than you can stab me…"

The little deer grabbed the knife on instinct, and held it out, forcing himself to sit up. He swallowed and felt the collar on his neck "It's gonna explode…" He whimpered, his voice tiny.

Luffy nodded "We can get it off…"

The boy looked unsure, tears flooded his face as he looked like he was going to sob again "Y-You're going to hurt me… Master told you to hurt me…" He whimpered, sounding like he was convincing himself, not stating a fact.

The boy in the straw hat was silent "Luffy," A man with a long nose called, worry in his voice "The marine's 'll be here any minute, if you don't mind!"

"He's deciding!" Luffy called behind him, sounding a tad bit angry. He turned back, and his gaze softened, yet still serious "Chopper, you can come with us… we'll keep you safe, we'll make sure nobody ever hurts you again, if you want, we can take you away from here…"

Take him away? That is impossible, Master wouldn't let him be taken away.

He felt the collar again "It's gonna explode…" He whimpered, looking up into Luffy's eyes "I-I-I don't w-w-wanna hurt…" he whimpered, starting to cry.

Luffy reached a hand out, and Chopper held up the knife, but the hand moved forward and gently pet his face, very gently so he wouldn't hurt any more than he already was. His eyes squeezed tight as he dropped the knife, starting to cry. It was the warmth from his dream, it was dull, but it was still there.

"Will you come with us buddy?" Luffy asked.

"W-W-Will I-I-I h-h-hurt anymore?" The boy cried out, covering his eyes with his hooves, even though it hurt just to do so.

Luffy shook his head "No, we'll keep you safe, even if it costs us our lives, we're sorry we couldn't protect you… Chopper, c'mon…"

The boy let out a sob and nodded, it was all he could do. He was pulled to his feet and a key was jammed into his neck, the collar dropped and warm, rubbery arms wrapped around him. The boy hurt, his ribs hurt from crying, his limbs hurt from the squeezing, his chest hurt from the whipping, his arm hurt from the stabbing, but most of all, his heart hurt, a good kind of hurt where it had started up once more as he remembered the word he couldn't before.

Love.

A man with blond hair ran forward and turned, kicking the collar straight out the door, the reindeer heard an explosion, but didn't stop crying or even think about it as he was lifted up. His head felt light, he was dizzy, but he felt safer than he had in his entire life with this stranger only from his dreams. He looked down at the ground as he passed, seeing his master, covered in stab wounds and growing paler by the moment, his bubble burst, literally, as blood poured from his head.

Luffy held him tightly, but firmly, it was the kind of feeling he hadn't had in his entire life, the warm arms of a nakama…

"Let's go home…" Luffy whispered into the reindeer's half ear, but the child had already passed out.


End file.
